Posted 6:41 pm Sunday, January 29, 2012
Brain Trauma, Rehabilitation Lead To Marriage
Tyler Paper Video
By DAYNA WORCHEL
Staff Writer
Robert Everett, 47, of Tyler, has no memory of the 18-wheeler wreck that put him in a coma for 35 days and kept him in the hospital for a year.
He worked as a commercial driver and was coming back to East Texas from Shreveport, La., when he had the wreck in Waskom, his mother, Sandy McCowin said Saturday.
Everett's journey of rehabilitation from his traumatic brain injury has taken him to hospitals in Longview, Houston and McKinney, Mrs. McCowin said. And most all of his bones and internal organs were damaged from the waist up in the wreck, he said. But one internal organ was left intact — his heart.
Staff Writer
Robert Everett, 47, of Tyler, has no memory of the 18-wheeler wreck that put him in a coma for 35 days and kept him in the hospital for a year.
He worked as a commercial driver and was coming back to East Texas from Shreveport, La., when he had the wreck in Waskom, his mother, Sandy McCowin said Saturday.
Everett's journey of rehabilitation from his traumatic brain injury has taken him to hospitals in Longview, Houston and McKinney, Mrs. McCowin said. And most all of his bones and internal organs were damaged from the waist up in the wreck, he said. But one internal organ was left intact — his heart.
And it was this heart that helped Everett fall in love and celebrate his marriage to Amber Roach, 24, Saturday at the offices of the East Texas Council for Independent Living. Ms. Roach developed brain damage after she became ill with pneumonia at the age of 2 and ran a 105 degree fever.
The couple met while attending classes and receiving training at the council office, which was decorated with a Western theme, complete with hay bales, wagon wheels and a trellis decorated with flowers.
The couple met while attending classes and receiving training at the council office, which was decorated with a Western theme, complete with hay bales, wagon wheels and a trellis decorated with flowers.
“I'm very happy and excited about getting married,” Everett said as he waited with his family before the wedding. The two will live in Tyler in a home Everett owns. But he probably will not be able to hold a job because of his ongoing problems with balance and equilibrium, Mrs. McCowin said.
The bride, who wore a white lace dress with boots and a cowboy hat covered with a veil, walked down the aisle on the arm of her brother, Anthony Sanders. Her groom, who wore blue jeans, boots and a cowboy hat, waited patiently for her next to pastor L.W. McCowin, who performed the ceremony.
Ms. Roach's grandmother, Linda Stegall, of Hawkins, stood by her side.
After he married the couple, McCowin sang a song about the good and bad days that happen during a marriage, and the importance of being there for each other through it all.
Laura Mattheis, executive director of the council, said sometimes people who don't have a disability think that the lives of people with disabilities are over once they are injured.
“Everyone wants and deserves love. The wedding is symbolic. It's a new beginning for a different kind of life,” she said.
The bride, who wore a white lace dress with boots and a cowboy hat covered with a veil, walked down the aisle on the arm of her brother, Anthony Sanders. Her groom, who wore blue jeans, boots and a cowboy hat, waited patiently for her next to pastor L.W. McCowin, who performed the ceremony.
Ms. Roach's grandmother, Linda Stegall, of Hawkins, stood by her side.
After he married the couple, McCowin sang a song about the good and bad days that happen during a marriage, and the importance of being there for each other through it all.
Laura Mattheis, executive director of the council, said sometimes people who don't have a disability think that the lives of people with disabilities are over once they are injured.
“Everyone wants and deserves love. The wedding is symbolic. It's a new beginning for a different kind of life,” she said.
